***Official 2024 STL Cardinals Thread ***

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Eh - playoffs are fairly easy to make these days. Just don't actively suck at your job and in a league where 1/2 the teams DO, you should be okay.

I mean it's not like winning 90 games should be all that difficult with 1/3 of the NL being a shitshow more years than not.

With competent leadership, the team will compete for the playoffs in as few as 2-3 years.

But to actually win anything meaningful? Eh, that really does feel like it will require a change in ownership. I mean, lets say we HAD Soto - is there any chance at all that this team would pay to keep him? I mean if Pujols would've emerged as a fully formed superstar in 2016 instead of 2000, is there any doubt at all that he'd be playing somewhere else right now? This ownership group wouldn't have thrown out Ohtani figures to retain him. I mean shit, Harper was too rich for them and his contract is NOTHING in today's landscape.

And the issue is term. It's always been term with DeWitt. Had Pujols not taken a 7 year deal the first time we extended him, that simply doesn't get done. If he insists on 10, he walks in 2007 when he's FA eligible coming off the WS championship.

But Pujols, Edmonds, Molina and Carpenter all loved playing for LaRussa (don't ask me why). So deals got done so they could stick around and that was the core of those teams.

I have no idea how this team would ever keep a genuine difference making talent should they somehow stumble into one. They're not going to keep up with the market and they're not going to get any sort of hometown discount anymore.

Its going to be many a long winters for our team.